SANTA ANA >> Charter school Oxford Preparatory Academy has filed a lawsuit accusing its founder of diverting school funds to benefit herself after an audit raised allegations of money-laundering.

The schools’ leaders last week filed a complaint in Orange County Superior Court accusing Sue Roche — who founded Oxford Preparatory and created a Yorba Linda-based private company that helped manage its sister campuses — of negligence, breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty.

Roche’s attorney, Marc Greenberg, flatly denied the allegations, which were raised late last year in an audit by the Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team, a collective that assists California school districts with financial and management advice and assistance.

“It finally gives us a forum to set the record straight,” Greenberg said of the lawsuit on Monday. “We now have an avenue to prove all these allegations are false.”

Roche, a former Chino Valley Unified administrator, founded Oxford Preparatory’s first K-8 school in Chino in 2010. As the charter expanded, opening campuses in Mission Viejo and Lake Forest, Roche created a nonprofit called Edlighten Learning Solutions to manage the schools.

The lawsuit contends that both the initial Oxford Prep board of directors and Edlighten Learning Solutions were staffed by friends and family loyal to Roche. It alleges that through the creation of a “complex structure of charter-management corporations that exercised significant influence over transactions and contracts,” Roche diverted educational funds for her personal use.

Last year, the Oxford Prep schools, Roche and Edlighten separated, with Oxford since electing a new board of directors and replacing the executive leadership.

The allegations contained in the audit and the lawsuit have “devastated” Roche, her attorney said.

“You are talking about a woman who dedicated her life to that school and made it a success,” Greenberg said.

The lawsuit seeks monetary damages and the turning over of “money and property” that Oxford Academy says rightfully belongs to it from Roche and Edlighten.

Scott Schwebke is an investigative reporter for the Register and the Southern California News Group. A native of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., he was previously a breaking news and multimedia reporter for the Ogden, Utah, Standard-Examiner. Scott has also worked at newspapers in Colorado, North Carolina and Virginia. A graduate of Brigham Young University, Scott is the Register's 2014 Beat Reporter of the Year. He has won more than two dozen journalism awards including the N.C. Associated Press News Council’s O. Henry Award for a lengthy narrative on the brutal home invasion slaying of a nurse and a Katie Award from the Dallas Press Club for a feature story on a UFO investigator. Scott has covered everything from methamphetamine trafficking cops to hurricanes and has accompanied police on undercover drug buys. He also provided an award winning, eyewitness account of the execution of a North Carolina death row inmate and obtained an exclusive interview with the ringleader of a brazen escape from the Orange County Jail involving three maximum security inmates. Scott was also part of the Register’s investigative team that produced the year-long, award winning Rehab Riviera series, examining problems in Southern California’s drug rehabilitation industry. Having spent two years living in England including Liverpool, he is an avid Beatles fan and memorabilia collector. He and his wife, Lisa, reside in Anaheim.

Sean Emery is a crime and public safety reporter for the Register who covers state and federal courts and criminal justice issues. He has worked for the Register since 2006, previously covering breaking news, the city of Irvine, the Orange County Great Park, and the city of San Juan Capistrano.